If you read the Republican platform, some of the planks on gun control (the GOP is against most of it) and abortion (the GOP is against it, with no exceptions) you would be hard-pressed to match it up with most New Jersey Republicans. Former Gov. Tom Kean sums up the reality of the platform for the GOP — and the Democrats for that matter.
“It doesn’t mean anything because the platform isn’t what determines policy; it’s the candidate,” Kean said.
The actual GOP platform is supposed to represent the party, philosophically and ideologically, except, evidently, when it doesn’t.
”It’s not one size fits all. New Jersey politics wouldn’t necessarily mirror what happens in Montana or nationally. You know, we in New Jersey, we march to our own drummer,” said Sen. Kevin O’Toole. “We march to what the folks in New Jersey feel comfortable with and we’re comfortable with and it’s not a direct reflection of every state and we do in New Jersey what we’re comfortable with, and that’s a great reflection of the will of the people.”
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Some state Republicans struggle with the more controversial aspects of the platform, like the no exceptions anti-abortion plank, and decide to just ignore them. Others, like Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, try to rationalize.
“I actually think that Roe versus Wade back in 1973, I don’t see it changing. I’m really a strong supporter that this is going to remain the way it is. I don’t think we should make this the issue,” Munoz said. “The issue is about making a strong economy, so that people — women — can actually succeed, and that’s how I see it.”
Even Mitt Romney has rejected the no exceptions on abortion plank of the GOP platform. But conventional wisdom is that while most Democrats will try to cover the Republicans with the red paint of the most extreme aspects of their platform — and vice versa — voters end up voting for the guy at the top of the ticket, and as New Jersey’s popular, moderate former governor says, “It’s the candidate, and I’m pretty happy with Mitt Romney. I think he’s a good candidate and I think he’ll be a good president.”
Supporters of Congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul got the cold shoulder at this convention, but Paul’s call for an annual audit of the Federal Reserve did make it into the platform, suggesting that the document, while not quite the tablets of Moses, serves a more important role — as an outlet for the party’s special interests.
David Cruz reports from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.